HIMSS19 Showed Glimpses of a Bright Future, But Also Problem Solving in the Here and Now

Dr. Andrew Mellin, Surescripts VP of Medical Informatics Physician has been to nearly 20 HIMSS conferences over his career, wearing different hats as a physician, as a vendor and as a health system leader. But this one, his first one as a member of the Surescripts team, felt different, as he explained in a recent article on LinkedIn.

“With my many conversations with provider leaders, technology companies, healthcare associations, and entrepreneurs—I felt like I was at the center of something big and impactful, [as Surescripts] is a facilitator that brings together virtually every major stakeholder in healthcare, including arch competitors, with a common goal to improve safety, lower costs and ensure quality care,” says Dr. Mellin.

“To me, the most profound impact the Surescripts Network Alliance will have in the next few years is removing the opaque reality of an individual person’s financial responsibility for a prescription,” he says.

Dr. Mellin had the opportunity to facilitate a panel at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, with a focus on the need for, and transformative power of, prescription price transparency at the point of care. The panelists, all participants in the Network Alliance, talked frankly about the very real need for this technology and that it can be a real game changer in the care journey. Not just for the patient, but for the prescriber, as well, which can help alleviate the very real phenomenon of physician burnout, noted a number of the panelists.

“This HIMSS was different for me—it was not about cool technologies and future promises, but it was about solving difficult, industry-wide problems today. The rapid adoption and value realization for prescription price transparency tools is the manifestation of years of work by my colleagues and people across the industry to build a foundation of trust, technology, and standards,” Dr. Mellin says. “And, I’m excited to work across the industry to put this tool in every provider’s hands and to work with the Surescripts Network Alliance to solve the next hard challenge.”

To read Dr. Mellin’s full take on HIMSS19, check out his article on LinkedIn. And for more on Surescripts’ experience at HIMSS19, be sure to view our highlights video.